Coercive Wellness Programs Create New Headaches

Jane Slaughter Labor Notes
Employer-created wellness programs are about what workers should do on their own time, not what the employer could do to stop making them sick at work...Wellness programs are growing fast. In firms with more than 200 workers, 94 percent had such programs in 2012

Ways to Juice Up the Labor Movement; Labor Once Again Becomes Part of the National Conversation

Sarah Jaffe; Amy Dean AlterNet and The Century Foundation
The passage of a so-called "right-to-work" law in Michigan recently left the labor movement feeling gut-punched. AlterNet talks with Stephen Lerner, Jonathan Westin, Ruth Milkman, Bill Fletcher Jr., Jane McAlevey, Eric Robertson & Ben Speight for their suggestions on how labor can go on the offensive in the next year. Amy Dean, former president of the South Bay (CA) AFL-CIO Labor Council looks at best & worst developments of 2012 in the labor and social movements.

New York City Labor Chorus Gets Better with Age

Tina Susman Los Angeles Times
Just how long the songs will go on is anyone's guess. One person who isn't worried is Ballard, Chorus director, who credits Occupy Wall Street with raising awareness of labor issues."Very few young people would stop and listen to us, but now they do," said Ballard, who's confident that interest will spur a new generation to sing. "They'll be the next people who carry the torch."

The Hero Teachers of Newtown; Teachers Are First Responders

Diane Ravitch and Deborah Dunton Diane Ravitch's Blog and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
This much is clear: the teachers and staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School reacted with astonishing courage to the unthinkable, the terrifying intrusion of a man intent on murdering them and their students. With no thought of their own safety, they defended their children. Everyone of them is a hero, those who died and those who survived....we were reminded that the first first responders at schools displayed courage. They did their jobs.